When thick or viscous products (such as gels, creams and pastes) are dispensed they do not always flow freely to the feed-tube intake. This can lead to unreliable dosing and difficulty in clearing the last part of the product from a container. It is therefore known to provide a follower plate which fits slidably around the feed tube, sealing inwardly against the feed tube and outwardly against the container side wall. The plate lies on top of the product mass to ensure that withdrawal of a volume of product through the feed tube inlet (at the container base) causes a uniform fall of the product surface. Without the follower plate, and particularly when dispensing is rapidly repeated, local voiding near the feed tube would tend to leave inaccessible product residues up the container side wall.
Even with follower plates, however, it has been found that undispensed product residues can be undesirably high and undesirably variable.